The heart and lungs work together to circulate oxygenated blood. However, the heart may stop due to heart attack, drowning, suffocation and electric shock. Consequently, oxygenated blood may not flow to vital organs, particularly the brain. Brain cells begin to suffer and die within six minutes after the heart stops circulating blood. In the event of heart pumping failure, Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is often administered to temporarily sustain blood circulation to the brain and other organs during efforts to re-start the heart pumping. This effort is directed toward reducing hypoxic damage to the victim.
Generally, CPR is administered by a series of chest compressions to simulate systole and relaxations to simulate diastole, thereby providing artificial circulatory support. Ventilation of the lungs is usually provided by mouth-to-mouth breathing or by means of an externally activated ventilator. Successful resuscitation is determined primarily by three factors: 1. the time delay in starting treatment, 2. the effectiveness of a provider""s technique, and 3. prior or inherent damage to the heart and vital organs. Considering these factors, the present techniques of resuscitation have shortcomings.
Manual CPR as taught in training courses worldwide can be easily started without delay in most cases. When properly administered, basic CPR can provide some limited circulatory support. Unfortunately, there is considerable variability in provider skill, endurance and strength. Furthermore, a person who does not perform CPR very often may not maintain those skills. Even in trained persons there is considerable variation in application of force, timing, and dwell time of the duty cycle. The American Heart Association recommends a 50% dwell time in compression. The position of the hands on the victim""s chest may vary or shift during CPR, thereby risking damage to ribs or internal organs and lessening the effectiveness of CPR. With prolonged CPR, provider fatigue may limit effectiveness and indeed, is an indication to terminate rescue efforts.
Various mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, and hydraulic devices have been devised to address these problems and to improve resuscitation efforts. Devices have included chest squeezers, chest thumpers, and sternal depressors in various configurations. Some systems include means for ventilatory support, abdominal counter-pulsation or binding, defibrillation, chest decompression, and electrical monitoring of cardiac electrical activity. A timer device has also been developed which can monitor manually applied CPR forces.
None of the devices reported to date has the capacity to provide all the beneficial functions of CPR; including adequate compressions/decompressions, ventilation, abdominal support, and data logging in a configuration which is compact, portable, mobile, simple, and cost-effective. None of these devices can effectively provide circulatory support in a variety of adverse conditions such as moving ambulances, flying airliners, sports arenas, remote or irregular terrain or woodlands, victims trapped in limited space, or victims in a soft bed.
The chest-positioner/pad cardio pulmonary resuscitation system (CCPRS) provides improved resuscitation during one-person or two-person CPR. The simple, compact, portable and cost-effective system provides for manual, mechanical or electrical driven external chest compressions via a socket connection to a chest-positioner/pad unit. The chest-positioner/pad unit provides greater control of compression positioning providing adequate and reproducible chest compressions while preventing rib fractures and damage to vial internal organs. The present invention also provides improved blood circulation, oxygenation and gas exchange by expanding the chest past its normal relaxation point during diastole. Providers are able to administer adequate CPR for longer periods of time with reduced or minimal effort while improving survivability of cardiac arrest victims.
Certain embodiments of this invention are not limited to any particular individual features disclosed, but include combinations of features distinguished from the prior art in their structures and functions. Features of the invention have been broadly described so that the detailed descriptions that follow may be better understood, and in order that the contributions of this invention to the arts may be better appreciated. There are, of course, additional aspects of the invention described below. These may be included in the subject matter of the claims to this invention. Those skilled in the art who have the benefit of this invention, its teachings, and suggestions will appreciate that the conceptions of this disclosure may be used as a creative basis for designing other structures, methods and systems for carrying out and practicing the present invention. The claims of this invention are to be read to include any legally equivalent devices or methods which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
The present invention recognizes, addresses and meets the previously-mentioned preferences or objectives in its various possible embodiments and equivalents thereof. To one of skill in this art who has the benefit of this invention""s realizations, teachings, disclosures, and suggestions, other purposes and advantages will be appreciated from the following description and the accompanying drawings. The detail in the description is not intended to thwart this patent""s object to claim this invention no matter how others may later disguise it by variations in form or additions of further improvements. These descriptions illustrate certain preferred embodiments and are not to be used to improperly limit the scope of the invention which may have other equally effective or legally equivalent embodiments.